If you're looking for nothing more than a quick and inexpensive stomach-filler, most restaurants serve filling soups accompanied by copious amounts of bread. Bob , a spicy bean soup, shkembe chorba or tripe soup, and tarator , a cold soup made from yoghurt and cucumber, are the three most common varieties.

Salads in Bulgaria are usually eaten as a starter, or as the accompaniment to a stiff aperitif, rather like meze in Turkey. Most common are those formed from the following vegetables, whether singly or in combination: cabbage ( zele ), tomatoes ( domati ), cucumber ( krastavitsi ) and peppers ( piperki or chushki ). A meshana salata (mixed salad) consists of cucumbers, peppers and tomatoes; a Shopska salata is the same topped with grated white cheese, while a selska salata comes with a few additional slices of boiled egg. Two yogurt-based salads are mlechna salata (like tarator but thicker, with nuts) and snezhanka (pickled cucumbers covered in yoghurt). Other oft-encountered starters are pârzheni chushki , baked peppers; lukanka , a spicy salami-like sausage; and sudzhuk - all of which make an excellent accompaniment to a round of drinks.

Mainstay of any Bulgarian restaurant menu are the grilled meats , of which kebapcheta and kyufte are the most common. More substantial are chops ( pârzhola or kotlet ), or fillets ( file or kare ), which are invariably teleshko (veal) or svinsko (pork). Main courses may be served with a set garnitura (usually fries and the occasional vegetable), although sometimes you'll find these items listed individually on the menu and will have to order them separately (always ask about this; otherwise you may end up being served a slab of meat and nothing else). In the grander restaurants the main course will be accompanied by potatoes ( kartofi ) and a couple of vegetables, as well as bread: sometimes a pitka or small bread bun, or more rarely a simitla , a glazed bun made from chickpea flour. Lower down the scale, you may just get fried potatoes ( pârzheni kartofi ) and a couple of slices of bread. You're usually expected to specify how many slices ( filiiki ) you want.

Mehanas and touristy folk-style restaurants are the likeliest places to get traditional Bulgarian dishes baked and served in earthenware pots. The best known is gyuvech (which literally means "earthenware dish"), a rich stew comprising peppers, aubergines, and beans, to which are added either meat or meat stock. Kavarma , a spicy meat stew (often pork), is prepared in a similar fashion, and tastes something like Hungarian goulash. Two other traditional recipes which you may come across are sarmi , cabbage leaves stuffed with rice and mincemeat; and imam bayaldi , aubergine stuffed with all manner of vegetables, meat and herbs - a Turkish dish, whose name translates as "the priest burst", found in the south of the country.

Finally, along the coast and around the highland lakes and reservoirs there's fish ( riba ) - most often fried or grilled, but sometimes in a soup or stew - and nearly always of a higher standard than the meat dishes. Most coastal snack bars and restaurants offer tsatsa or popche , small white fish which are deep fried in batter and served with fries; and skumriya (mackerel), delicious when grilled. Skumriya na keramidi (literally "mackerel on a tile"), is baked in an earthenware container, usually with a rich tomato sauce. In parts of the Rhodopes and Pirin you'll also find mountain trout, as well as calamari, shark and other riba ot Byaloto More (fish from the White Sea, as Bulgarians call the Aegean).